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Break-Barrel Repeater Air Rifle

Swamp Thang

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
Just picked up a Gamo Swarm Maxxim air rifle in 22 caliber, and man, I haven't had so much fun plinking in a good while.

https://www.airgundepot.com/gamo-swarm-maxxim-igt.html

This rifle is just beautiful to look at. The durable plastic casing around the barrel, which terminates in a huge muzzle brake, gives the gun the appearance of a big game rifle, or a sniper rifle, but looks are only part of the reason I love this rifle so much.

The ten-round clip system in this gun was apparently designed just last year, in 2017, and it really does work as advertised. You load up the magazine with ten pellets, and thereby eliminate the time consuming step of rummaging for a pellet, and loading it into the breech after every shot, as is done with all other break barrel air rifles on the market.

With this beauty, you simply break the barrel to cock it, and fire, until the counter on the top of the magazine lets you know that you have fired the last pellet. I have run nearly 500 pellets through this gun, and the loading mechanism has not failed even once.

The gun is light as well, weighing in at less than 6 pounds. It is quiet, and has a really gentle recoil, but most of all this rifle is very accurate once sighted in. I read lots of negative user comments about the cheap scope that came with the gun, but this particular one has not shown any sign of losing accuracy on my gun thus far.

I am not affiliated in any way with the Gamo air rifle company, but I am so pleased with this purchase that I felt there would be no harm in sharing this find with other outdoors people who enjoy target shooting without the need to wear ear protectors. The Gamo Swarm Maxxim air rifle is a superb design that I would recommend without hesitation.

Here is a detailed review with more pictures https://hardairmagazine.com/reviews/gamo-swarm-maxxim-air-rifle-test-review-22-cal/
 

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Green Squall

Green Squall

Well-known member
Plinking is fun! Did you decide to go with .22 over .177 for a certain reason? I have a Diana RWS and its freakin' heavier than a .22LR for christ sakes. It's nicely made, but way overpriced for an air rifle.
 
BadTicket

BadTicket

ØG T®ipL3 ØG³
Moderator
Veteran
Plinking is good fun, and neighbour friendly too. I like a good shotgun party here and there, but it is pretty loud and ammo ain't cheap. Air rifles you can shoot all day and still have money to spend :) If you have extra cash around, and like plinking, check out PCP (pre-charged pneumatic) air guns. I go back to my breakers here and there, but they can't beat PCP-guns in Smooth cocking action, little to no recoil, rate of fire, accuracy, power, range or awesomeness. Benjamin Discovery is a good entry level PCP-rifle, price has gone up but still affordable. Decent bang for your buck.

picture.php

Discovery on the right side, coupled with a .22 TKO muzzle brake which makes it very silent and fairly long.

If you got more extra cash around, and you wanna get serious. Stuff like this 6,35 FX Whisper is pretty sweet. Handmade in Sweden, with some custom parts.. Wasn't cheap ;)
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I'd also recommend checking out "Ted's holdover" on youtube, if he hasn't been banned. Guy has a lot good videos from gun reviews to tips and tricks and DIY things for backyard plinking stuff like targets and scope cams, if that kinda stuff interests you.. :tiphat:
 
Zeez

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
Green Squall said:
Plinking is fun! Did you decide to go with .22 over .177 for a certain reason? I have a Diana RWS and its freakin' heavier than a .22LR for christ sakes. It's nicely made, but way overpriced for an air rifle.
Click to expand...

I had a RWS Diana 52. It was a beast. I switched over to PCP and have a few of them 177 22 & 25. I had a 50, but it was just too much. Sounded like a canon. Incredibly accurate and fun.
 
yesum

yesum

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Was watching Ted's holdover a couple days ago. Hehe That guy is a killer. Those poor birds mouths flying open as they are hit, filmed in slow motion. He selects for pest birds to be fair. Those birds are killers themselves.

I used to have a FWB 300S, match 10 meter side lever spring rifle. I would shoot 2 inch tall army men at 35 yards, also grapes. If no wind I would try for head shots. Which is around 1/4 of an inch diameter.

Have thought about getting a precharged gun. Sounds nice not having to pump the gun. I do not think they are quite as accurate as the 10 meter guns but have more velocity and energy. The 10 meter guns run around 600 fps. I would like one that ran at 7-800 fps, to keep some accuracy and get more pop.
 
Swamp Thang

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
Hello Green Squall. I went with .22 caliber because the pellet speed is rated at just under 1000 feet per second, meaning there is no sonic crack with each shot. My .22 Gamo Swarm Maxxim makes a noise only slightly louder than the slamming of a car door.

The .177 version of this gun is rated for pellet speeds of 1300 feet per second, which is a hair above the speed of sound, whereby there would be a louder report as those smaller pellets go supersonic. I also went with the .22 in case I ever decide to go rabbit hunting, and need a little extra stopping power that the heavier 22 pellet provides.

@Bad Ticket that is a fine collection of air rifles you have there. I like the convenience and accuracy of PCP air rifles, but since I live in the Third World where anything I purchase must be air-freighted over, the cost buying and shipping over a compressor to charge up PCP guns tilted my final choice in favor of the old-school break barrel option, of which the Gamo Swarm Maxxim, and its big brother the Gamo Swarm Magnum, are the only repeaters currently available.

I watched in amazement several youtube clips showing hunters using larger caliber PCP air rifles to down feral pigs, of all things, so the technology of air rifles is undergoing major evolutionary advances. These are not the pellet guns of my childhood.
 
Swamp Thang

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
@Mayor of the Desert it is cool to see that old multi-pump air rifle you used as a kid is still a functioning workhorse. I guess a big advantage of those multi-pump airguns, is that there is no main spring to wear out. That said, air-gun main-spring technology is evolving into weight-saving sealed gas-cylinder propulsion systems, as with my new Gamo Swarm Maxxim, along with quite a few other brands.

With spring fatigue not a concern with this gun, I hope to "get my money's worth" over many years of frequent use, along with regular cleaning using a .22 bore snake, before any sort of rebuild is needed to maintain accuracy and power.

Squirrel hunting in the woods holding an old German-made Diana single-shot break-barrel air rifle with open metal sights, was my first introduction to shooting as a teenager, yet now, despite owning a small collection of rifles and shotguns, plinking at paper targets with an air rifle oddly holds as much appeal for me, as did hunting in my none-too-distant past. The squirrels around her have nothing to worry about, for now, ha ha.
 
BadTicket

BadTicket

ØG T®ipL3 ØG³
Moderator
Veteran
mayorofthdesert said:
i have my dad's old ten pump benjamin .177, many a squirrel met their demise in my youth.

View Image
Click to expand...

That's a really nice air rifle to have. I read this article on "must have things for a survivalist", and that gun was in the top ten :) Too bad they are made in China these days, and the quality isn't what it used to be, tho the design is the same pretty much. They updated the iron sights from old style black ones to these new glow in the dark plastic shits, which do serve a purpose and there's a time and place for em. But you can't hunt elephants or large game with an air rifle like that, and shooting something like a rat in darkness, where you can hardly make out your target.. A god damn glow sight ain't gonna help at all. Plus most of them shits are plastic anyways, not very durable and the plastic moulds for the sights are often cheaply made, so you might have to take a piece of sandpaper to smooth out the edges and thing. Nothing that a white paint marker didn't do for iron sight on older guns.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, please and thank you very much! And I'd gladly pay a little extra if something I plan on using a good while is made somewhere where labour is a bit more expensive, rather than cheap as possible made Chinese bulk stuff. Maybe I'm in the minority with that, but I'm not alone! Quality air rifle like this, could last from father to son if treated and maintained well. Chinese piece of crap starts falling apart after the one year warranty is done, so you need to buy one every year and hope for the best, dang it! :huggg:
 
al70

al70

Active member
Veteran
i luv me auld beretta 12 guage double barrell sawnoff, it's the baddest hand gun ye ever seen
 
Zeez

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
Those Benjamins I have in the pic above aren't close to the FX in the vid, but they have round magazines, bolt action, they're quiet as a mouse, and they're pretty accurate. Allot of bang for the buck and some real cheep plinking at home where I can't shoot firearms.

The thing is the pump. That hand pump is a killer. I got a shoebox pump. It's a helper pump that requires 100psi from a normal compressor to make 3000psi.
 
E

Earlmarne

Member
Zeez said:
Those Benjamins I have in the pic above aren't close to the FX in the vid, but they have round magazines, bolt action, they're quiet as a mouse, and they're pretty accurate. Allot of bang for the buck and some real cheep plinking at home where I can't shoot firearms.

The thing is the pump. That hand pump is a killer. I got a shoebox pump. It's a helper pump that requires 100psi from a normal compressor to make 3000psi.
Click to expand...
My 25 cal mrod, after some tinkering was really freakin accurate.
 
Andyo

Andyo

Active member
Veteran
modifying puny 12 ft/lbs in uk

modifying puny 12 ft/lbs in uk

I used to modify uk break barrel air rifles as they were restricted to 12 ft/lbs
Pretty simple shortening the front end of the piston by 3/16 th of an inch
took a bsa meteor of 10 ft/lbs to 18 ft/lbs
and more if you made a whole piston out of stainless steel with a larger wall thickness so it was heavier.
modifying the port too and adding an after market spring stronger than the standard.A
 
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Swamp Thang

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
Earlmarne said:
Man, I got rid of my break barrels long ago. Pcp or nuthin these days
Click to expand...

Looking over the selection of PCP air rifle on sale at Airgun Depot, I initially wrote them off as being way too costly for my budget, but then I searched a little more carefully, and then found a couple of PCP rifles that cost about the same as my new Gamo Swarm break barrel.

This bargain-basement Banjamin PCP rifle is sold with a manual pump at just over $200, which is definitely well short of the average $500 and above price range of other PCPs on the market. The prices of stand-alone PCP air-gun compressors are all insanely high, for some reason, so seeing that a manual pump is available is good news fer sure.

https://www.airgundepot.com/benjamin-wildfire-sniper-scope-and-pump-combo.html

Maybe if I am a good boy, and eat all my wake-'n-bake cereal, Santa might toss one of these cheap PCP setups out the sleigh for me, come Xmas time. Then again, Santa might flip me the bird, and advise me to save up my coin and get my own, so he can keep the gun for his own fun times up in the North Pole, during those endless summer days.
 
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